Sometimes it is easy to lose focus and fall into the “why me?” way of thinking.  Of course we are caught up in what we sometimes think as life rather than the reality that we have created for ourselves.  We lose perspective.

What can we do about this?  How can we make a dramatic shift?  For sure it can be done and sometimes it is just as easy as using 6 words to accomplish that feat.  Ok, what are those “magic” words you may ask?   Simply, they are

“In five years, will this matter?

Sean Stephenson has some ideas and tips on how you can make that shift and put things into perspective, how we relate to others and how they relate to us.

If you are looking for ways to improve your life and are searching for a way to put things in perspective, have a look at this video.  It is well worth it, IMO.

Many have more serious health, economic, political, mental and physical conditions than we have. I am all for expressing gratitude and appreciation for what we have in life.

Wishing you much love, peace, good health and prosperity.  You deserve it!

What are you grateful for today.  Whatever that is, please feel free to make a comment here to express it.  It is good to write it down, journal it or  tell someone about it.

I will start it off.  I am grateful for my Fuji point and click camera.  It has given me much joy and has produced many photos for me.  It is magical!

Eugene

Looking at my previous post which was quite awhile ago when the Olympic Torch passed through our local community. It actually started in Victoria, BC and was quite impressive, then traveled across the country and to parts far north.

People became quite emotional about it and the Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, BC turned out to be a tremendous success with Canada winning the most gold medals after having had two Olympics on our soil without having won even one gold prior.

More than that though it gave us inspiration and a coming together in this spirit. Even our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, attended the games and many events. Of course some were saying that is why he prorogued Parliament so he could spend a nice vacation there and enjoy the spillover effects.  Yes he is a hockey fan like many Canadians, yet mostly an opportunist.  Well we won’t let that kind of stuff interfere with the good times that happened during the games and that transcended the mundane aka politics.

All right then(now) I managed to make it up Mt Doug again, quite a few times recently, and revisited the seaside park side as well.  So I have a few pictures to share.

If you are feeling a bit crabby, I found a mate for you:

After turning it over from under a rock it was ready for me and in attack mode.

I found the leaning tree again.  It is amazing how it is still standing.  Most of the bank, where the roots stick out from, has eroded away.

I got quite close to this fellow who was pecking away without paying any attention to me.  All that pecking was doing some major damage to the tree of course.

I also caught someone else in the “act” so to speak. Well some of these need assistance in breeding their offspring. Nature, unlike most humans, does not care who is looking at them.

Yes, spring is in the air and on the land in this fair place.  I reckon we got a fair bit of heaven here.

Well, that is it for today, as I say, more to come.

Best wishes to you.

Eugene

It is a beautiful day here in Victoria, BC Canada.  Canada is officially 142 years young today.

Lots of celebrations going on all across the nation.  Wishing all the Canucks a Happy Canada Day.

Celebration brings up the subject of music for me. Music transcends the mundane and uplifts us.   Canada has a history of producing some great musicians, poets, writers, performers etc.  I will post a few later on.  Just a sampling as there are too many to list.

In our capital city of Ottawa, Sarah McLachlan is performing today.  Here in Victoria one of the performers is Pacifika from Vancouver featuring a Peruvian born singer I first heard on CBCradio2.

It is impossible to  pick and choose the best one with such a rich list of artists with the likes of Neil Young, Anne Murray, Leonard Cohen, Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Céline Dion, Shania Twain and so on.  There are many newer artists up and coming and who have arrived on the scene. Some move on to the USA and other countries and many choose to remain “Canadian” maintaining their connection with the country of Canada.

As a nation we are generally tolerant and takes things in stride and rarely shout about this great land of ours.  It is a natural beauty.

I like to view the natural settings we have, when I take time to do so, such as a recent photo I took.

I will leave you with one of Canada’s finest, Gordon Lightfoot singing about one of the greatest historical achievements in Canada. It is hard to imagine the difficulty in building the railroad across the varied and rough terrain.  I am sure many died along the way so people could travel across the country coast to coast.

Enjoy your day, wherever you may be.

Cheers,

Gene

Here are a few of the performing artists, mostly singers from Canada, you may have heard of one or two of them:

Bryan Adams
Paul Anka
Randy Bachman  The Guess Who
Paul Brandt
Michael Bublé
Tommy Chong
Tom Cochrane
Bruce Cockburn
Leonard Cohen
Bare Naked Ladies  group
Burton Cummings
Céline Dion
Leslie Feist
David Foster  composer
Sarah Harmer
Jeff Healey
Diana Krall
K.D. Lang
Daniel Lanois
Avril Lavigne
Gordon Lightfoot
Ashley MacIsaac
Natalie MacMaster
Sarah McLachlan
Alanis Morissette
Anne Murray
Nelly Furtado
Brad Roberts – singer for Crash Test Dummies
Sam Roberts
Serena Ryder
Hank Snow
Shania Twain
Ian Tyson
Sylvia Tyson
Chad VanGaalen
Gino Vannelli
Martha Wainwright
Neil Young

Apologies to the many others not mentioned.  Feel free to make a comment and add your favorites, if you wish.

I did a short hike up Mt. Tolmie this morning and took along my fujifilm camera to see what I could see and photograph from the top.

It is taken on a beautiful sunny day in Victoria, BC. Yes, that is a snow covered mountain to the east and the view from up there is awesome. We had our snow back in Dec and this is just fine to look at it away over there in the scenic background.

I spent many winters in other parts of the country and this is just an ideal setting for me. It is breathtaking and lifts the spirit to be around here and such marvelous sites.

There is no doubt that Mother Earth still is a magnificent wonder to be enjoyed, appreciated and deserves to be treated with respect. This despite the harsh treatment she receives at times from the inhabitants of the planet of the human kind. Enjoy the view.

I most certainly did.

Best wishes and find your own gems wherever you may be.

Namaste.

genes creative waves